Welcome to the RACER mailbag. If you have any questions for the RACER writers, please send them to mailbag@racer.com. We’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions. However, letters that include questions are more likely to be published. Questions received after 3pm every Monday will be saved for the following week.
*Mailbag has its final break scheduled for next week. Please keep sending us your questions and we’ll save them for when we return on October 16th.
Q: The charter system is really just a grid spot guarantee (excluding Indy), and if you want to exit IndyCar, do you also have the right to sell the grid spot guarantee to the highest bidder in the future? And have any of the team owners taken exception to the fact that there is no performance-based payment in the Leader Circle award and that the Leader Circle does not encompass all charters?
Andy, Detroit
MARSHALL PRUETT: Leaders Circle is a merit-based system where members with 25 charters have an equal opportunity to win one of 22 $1 million LC contracts.
Michael Andretti/Dan Towriss pressured Penske to expand the LC to include all 25 charters, which would have increased prize money spending by series owners by $3 million per year, and he was furious at the idea, according to people who spoke to me about it .
Penske’s response was that they would not invest an additional $3 million to increase LC to include all 25, but if Michael really wanted to increase it from 22 to 25, he would do so and divide 25 by $22 million and dilute it. Everyone agreed to pay $880,000 for the three additional LCs. To no one’s surprise, it stayed at 22 LCs at $1 million each.
Q: Please tell us about Andretti Global. From what I understand, Andretti Global is owned by Michael Andretti. Does Andretti Global include all Andretti racing teams (IndyCar, IMSA, Formula E…)? Are attempted Formula 1 efforts included? What do the latest changes mean for Formula 1 plans?
Who is Dan Torris? Was he still a part owner? Does the person have any background or knowledge in motorsports? Can fans expect a different side of the team? Or will it be business as usual? And the biggest question is: Why?
Shocked and Confused, Buffalo, New York
MP: Michael Andretti and Dan Towriss formed a new parent company called Andretti Global a few years ago. The company includes every team we know of, especially the F1 program. We’ve been writing about Towriss for several years. You can find some of them here, here and here.
He arrived in IndyCar in 2018 as a rookie and sponsor for Zach Veach at Andretti with Group 1001/Gainbridge. F1 plans are continuing and no planning or financial disruption has occurred. Other than seeing Michael less, I don’t expect any changes that I know of.
As for why, the team, Andretti and Towriss are working hard to present this as a happy and welcome development. I don’t buy it. After pushing this hard and getting the team back to greatness in IndyCar and getting the nod to enter F1 as a participant, suddenly now is the time to step down? No one I spoke to believed it fell apart in the terrible way it was marketed.
Q: What was the real reason Michael gave up ownership? I don’t buy anything that’s being reported. It doesn’t make sense as his racing business is expanding and a huge new headquarters is being built.
Anthony, Wellington, Florida
National Assembly member: Same. I’ve heard some interesting theories from F1 insiders that Cadillac wants to move forward with its desired F1 program without Andretti – but without Towriss and his massive funding via the Andretti Global team he manages. This is the expression. Organized play. We will see what the future reveals.
Q: I’m trying to understand some of the Andretti Global news. On September 5, RACER reported that WTRAndretti would change its name to WTR. Wayne Taylor said of Endurance “at Cadillac’s request to simplify the name and honor the long championship-winning legacy that exists between Taylor and General Motors.” Horse racing.” It smelled wrong, as separating the Cadillac and Andretti names didn’t seem to help the duo’s ongoing mission to break into F1 together.
Then, in reference to the IMSA GTD class with Lamborghini, a press release appeared on the IMSA website on September 24th announcing that “Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti will return to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the 2025 Grand Touring Daytona.” has been published. (GTD) class.”
So Lamborghini wants to be associated with the Andretti name, but Cadillac wants nothing to do with it?
RACER then reported that Michael Andretti was transitioning to a “strategic role” at Andretti Global, while SI reported that McLaren’s Zak Brown was moving to Andretti Acquisition Corp. Reported that he had joined the Board of Directors of II.
I would appreciate any insight into how this all adds to the future of Michael Andretti’s racing involvement or the future of Andretti Global.
Lifelong Andretti fan
MP: The GTP program is a factory deal with Cadillac paying most of the costs. There is no linkage in GTD with Lamborghini as it is not a factory deal.
I don’t know what we’ll see of Michael in the next few years, but I don’t like that he’s almost entirely on the outside looking in.
Michael’s official explanation of what’s next will leave most people speechless. more It becomes confusing as to what he will actually do. motorsport images
Q: I was very surprised to read that Michael Andretti was stepping down from his ownership role at Andretti Global.
Do you have any inside details you can share? The article notes that Michael has taken a step back to “focus on a more strategic role.” Is this the only way to gain real approval from F1 teams by excluding Michael operationally?
Do you think Cadillac could ultimately take full control in the next few years and form a team with both IndyCar (switching to Chevrolet power) and F1 interests like McLaren did?
I wonder how long the Andretti name will be associated with teams (IndyCar, F1, IMSA) in the future.
Rob Pobiega, Lemont, Illinois
MP: Following on from your last question, I heard you want something closer to the Cadillac Racing F1 program than the Andretti Global+Cadillac situation, considering all the money you can make by being a participant/team behind it. There are good reasons to do whatever it takes to get accepted into the program.
I don’t expect GM to invest heavily in the transition to electrification by 2035 and approve a huge budget for Cadillac to do it on its own.
Looking into the next year, Chevy’s fleet grew from 12 to 14 vehicles for 27 full-time employees. Honda has 13 people. Who will be eliminated if Chevy wants to take three more from Andretti? AJ Foyt? Arrow McLaren? Ed Carpenter Racing? Juncos Hollinger Racing? PREMA Racing? Team Penske?
The Juncos and PREMA are the two newest members of the Chevy family, so this is the only place where the alignment of Penske and Foyt with the strengths of Arrow McLaren and a patriotic angle with Carpenter in mind makes sense.
The question here is whether Chevy has a real motivation to make everything from Andretti Global a GM product, or whether it’s only interested in F1. The WTR/GM link existed long before Andretti/Towriss acquired WTR, so it would be wise to view this as a reunion of former partners rather than some grand Andretti initiative. I think WTR and GM would have gotten back together, with or without being in Andretti’s portfolio.
Q: I just read that Michael Andretti is stepping down from Andretti Global. Reading between the lines, it sounds like he was pushed out by the big money guy he brought in to fund all the expansion. What’s the full story?
Josh, Erlanger, Kentucky
MP: The story they tell is that this is what Michael wanted. Racing is central to his life, as it has been since he was a child. The fact that he suggests he wants to step aside and become a special advisor and, comically, an ambassador for his team is a reminder that we live in a free society with free speech. This involves saying stupid and insulting things and passing them off as truth.
